Railroad trains throughout the United States have provided a crucial interconnected highway between many cities and states. The safe passage of freight cars and train engines alike are a high priority for local businesses, state agencies, and federal agencies. As such, all railroad freight cars are required to have one or more hand brakes attached to them on at least one (1) end of the freight car.
There are countless trains that crisscross our country every day. These large vehicles bring just about every object we touch in our daily lives to us. While in motion, braking on the trains is performed by a pneumatic braking system. When rail cars are detached and separated, braking is performed by a manual hand wheel typically located at the end of each car. Theses brakes are used to secure the rail cars against unintended motion, movement, and even theft. However, anyone with even a basic knowledge of such braking systems can easily disengage such brakes accidentally or even maliciously. Chains are sometimes used as a means to secure such hand wheels, but they suffer from slack and/or the ability to turn the wheel in one (1) direction.
Hand brakes are most often set and released manually by a railroad worker, or as seen more recently such hand brakes may be remotely attended to. The current protocol is that a railroad worker must examine each hand brake before attempting to begin moving. Unfortunately, rail car hand brakes are not tamper proof and may not be effectively monitored at night or when the staff is not currently working.
A person who gains access to a rail car may also gain access to the rail car's hand brake. This would allow a scofflaw to tamper with the hand brake and potentially take control or sabotage operations of a train. If a freight car's brake is disengaged it is possible that it may roll off or even become a runaway car. Thus, a device that prevents manipulation of a rail car hand brake by non-railroad personnel is needed.
Various attempts have been made to solve problems found in hand brake locking devices. Among these are found in: U.S. Pat. No. 4,368,648 to Richard J. Housman; U.S. Pat. No. 6,338,288 to Michael J. Spadaccini; U.S. Pat. No. 8,839,915 to Anand R. Vithani; and U.S. Pat. No. 1,436,636 to Abraham Barraclough. These prior art references are representative of devices providing hand brake locking devices.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the invention as claimed. Thus, a need exists for a reliable rail car hand brake locking system, and to avoid the above-mentioned problems.